Regional cooperation and economic development

Abstract

There are substantial opportunities in the developing world to capture scale and agglomeration economies in the design and lay-out of major infrastructure investments through international cooperation in the fields of transportation, power and petroleum supply facilities. On a relative scale, these opportunities are much larger in these countries than in the developed world because of the very small markets and the technologically fixed, minimumsize systems that have to be installed to serve them. In addition, joint developments may sometimes generate substantial secondary development benefits. To assess the net benefits of such projects analyses have to be undertaken that compare these benefits with those of all other, non-cooperative alternatives. Special attention has to be given to the proper definition of the real opportunity costs of each one of them. In spite of the numerous complexities facing the realization of such undertakings, it is concluded that the opportunities for reaping large benefits are numerous and substantial and should be systematically supported by international aid agencies.

Managing urban/industrial wood fuel supply and demand in africa

“…10Given the rather shaky assumptions of the underlying data sets these percentages should be considered to be orders of magnitude estimates, rather than accurate projections. llwith lower world market prices for petroleum at present, these percentages have declined, but still are formidable, particularly for interior locations, where transport costs from ports of entry can more than double delivered costs [7,12]. 12To take Malawi as an example of the potential impact: Replacing the approximately one million cubic meters of solid wood equivalent consumed by urban households in 1983 would have required additional kerosene imports of some 55,000 tons, costing about US$14 million in border prices (in January 1986 prices).…”